Chapter 4
“HUH?! WAIT! GO WHERE? GO WHEN?!”
“Forget it.”
“What?”
“We’re done. We’re not going anywhere.”
It was only moments ago that the alien was telling me to draw Kobo-chan and saying I was Toriyama, but now he suddenly let his hands drop from my shoulders. His blue masked face tilted upward like he was zoning out.
What’s gotten into him?
“Y’know, it kinda feels like you’re messing with me,” I said. My brains had been dripping down my face this whole time, like sweat after a workout. Turned out it wasn’t as refreshing to wipe that off with the back of my hand, though. I didn’t even wanna think about how I looked right then.
“We’re done,” the alien said firmly. “It’s time to make a different choice.”
“You’re hitting me outta nowhere with this. I didn’t even get what point you were making in the first place, and now…I can’t even remember when we stopped talking about manga.”
“Just now. Look, we’re done. Let’s just…go somewhere.”
“So we are going somewhere!”
“No, I mean somewhere else. Remember what you said, Rara? That you’ve always wanted to ride double on a bike and go have some fun?”
“Um…I guess I did.” I laughed nervously, suddenly hit by a huge wave of embarrassment. I put my hands on my cold cheeks and tilted my head this way and that, since I knew how cute it was. My brains sloshed out and splattered onto the ground. I didn’t care though. Not anymore. I couldn’t let it get to me every single time. “Yeah… I wanna leave the world behind and see how far the two of us can go. Wait, I sound like a total rebel, right? I’m not, but I’ve always wanted to do this…so maybe I am a bit…”
“Let’s do it.” The alien nodded, his gaze intense. I was sure he was smiling under his mask. “I’ll take you wherever you want, as far as you want. Let’s blast off to the very edges of space.”
“You mean it?”
“Take a look.”
He pointed to where the fallen motorcycle had been. The half-crushed silver CB400. Only…
“You’re kidding!”
I couldn’t believe it. There was a gorgeous, streamlined motorcycle, glowing with the full spectrum of visible color. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The wheels were floating a couple inches off the ground. The paintwork was real stylish—only, it wasn’t paint. The vehicle’s glossy surface was giving off that colorful sheen naturally. More dazzling than anything else was its transparent, pulsing tank, its contents glowing the color of pure flame. It was waiting for us to get on and start it up. Around it floated several particles of light, each flickering and twisting in the darkness separately from the others.
My mind had frozen. I could only mutter “no way” over and over. I couldn’t take my eyes off the motorcycle either. It twinkled against the dark of the night. I’d never seen such an amazing vehicle before, not even in my wildest dreams. It was beyond my powers of imagination. This thing really could take us anywhere. I was sure of it. We really could go blasting off to the edges of space. We might even be able to touch the distant galaxy that spun around us like a record. My finger could be its needle. What kind of music would it play? Whatever it was, it would be perfect. It would be something we could dance to forever, something that would let us forget everything, something that would stop the dawn from ever coming.
“Let’s go, Rara.” The alien stood up and walked over to the bike. He turned to me and reached out a hand, jerking his chin toward the motorcycle to hurry me up.
“W-wait.” I wanted to follow him. I wanted to take his hand. But I couldn’t. “I can’t walk anymore. I mean, look at my—wah!”
Touching my stomach had made my organs slip out of me like one long worm. I tried desperately to stuff them back in, but it was no use. So I just grabbed them and tried to pull all of them out. I regretted it immediately. They wouldn’t stop coming. The worm was endless.
“Ugh. These are my intestines, right? What do I do? I know those thick belts are in fashion right now, but there’s no way I could pull this off! Let’s see… Nope, tying ’em into a bow isn’t gonna work either! It’s obvious that they’re intestines, and there’s no hiding that organ-meat color! And wait, what’s all this stuff clogging them… Eek!”
“Calm down, Rara.”
“Wait… Wait… Eeeew, something’s coming out! Ah! Okay, that’s it. Look, I wanna go with you, but there’s no way this is gonna work out. It was doomed from the start. I should probably stay here on my own…”
“I won’t let you. You’re going to be fine. I’m…” As calm as could be, he pointed at his face.
Yeah, I know. You’re an alien.
“I’m the one telling you this. Rara, you trust me, right? It’ll all be fine.”
“It will? You promise?”
“I mean it. Come on, stand up. Try walking. I want to go with you. There’s no point going if you’re not coming with me.”
Anything the alien said to me was true. The alien was correct. The alien couldn’t lie. That meant he was telling the truth. I really was fine.
I started pushing myself up, which was when I realized that he was staring at the center of my chest. He pointed. I looked down to see what the big deal was only to feel a sensation there that I’d totally forgotten about.
“Ah!”
A fist-sized lump was radiating heat in my chest, its pulsing light eventually overflowing from that spot.
“No way…” I looked at the alien. He was looking at me, and he nodded. I was sure he was smiling.
“Yes way. That’s you, Rara. That’s you right now.”
“Wow. Wow! Wow. Wooow!”
My chest was glowing with a bright fiery light, just like the motorcycle. There was light. Right here. It was pumping all on its own, sending out heat without the need for gas. My whole body had gone cold, but it warmed up in seconds, the numbing fire spreading to each one of my extremities. I spread out my arms and studied them, which only got me more hyped. I filled my lungs with air and screamed into the night like I was at the climax of a rave. Then I laughed at the fact that I was able to scream. I could see the glowing energy flowing through my veins. Gold, silver light running under my skin, illuminating my whole body in the process.